40
New base for
international growth
Loyal as ever to its North-West English roots Lancaster Fastener has spread its wings remarkably over
recent years, and is aiming to further extend its international customer base from new, custom-built
warehouse and offices in Morecambe.
Over some 27 years Lancaster has honed a – additional ranges and higher sales volumes
fastener brand that has become synonymous, meant Lancaster outgrew its longstanding
above all, with integrity. Its sourcing team take warehouse in Morecambe and was forced to
meticulous care in selecting the factories that hold stocks in additional, albeit close-by, storage
supply a range, which has rapidly expanded locations. In autumn last year the company
over recent years – from self tapping and successfully moved to a custom-built facility a
trilobular thread forming screws to an extensive kilometre or so from its previous location. “We
programme of self drilling screws, machine were extremely fortunate in having a developer
screws, fasteners for sheet metal, A2 and A4 who was really hands on and completely
stainless steel products and capacitor discharge committed to meeting our requirements,
weld studs. Lancaster, incidentally, has recently however detailed,” says managing director, Sam
pointed out to customers that its ranges are not Wilson. “The result is an outstanding building
and will not be affected by the application of anti- that gives us immediate improvements in
dumping tariffs against fasteners from China. capacity and efficiency, as well as having carefully
The real key to Lancaster has long been the designed-in options to expand both warehouse
reliability of its services, backed by a commitment and offices to accommodate future growth.”
to in-depth and across-range stockholding. Its Work on the new building started on a
development across the European market, from greenfield site in April 2008 with a tight schedule
a base that is, let’s face it, a good few 100 focused on completion by November. “There
kilometres from the English Channel, has been were,” Sam Wilson says, “a few interesting
built on characteristic attention to detail. A now moments, however with the support of the operational from the new premises, with hardly
well-established relationship with a reputed developer the completion date was successfully any customer noticing the change.
logistics operator has allowed the company achieved on time.” Barely taking a breath, Lancaster has now
to develop a highly effective delivery network The new warehouse, slightly less than 2,000 launched a new delivery service to the North
throughout Europe. Daily collections from square metres in area, utilises intensive high-rise American market. “We are approaching the
Lancaster are forwarded to a central hub in the racking to provide 5,000 pallet spaces improving market in the same service-focused way,”
Netherlands within 24 hours and then on through the efficiency and dynamics of the operation. explains Sam Wilson. “Key to Lancaster’s
a delivery network to distribution customers The racking design and layout permits a picking approach is being able to support our customer
throughout Europe. system precisely suited to Lancaster’s highly with often quite niche product quickly from
Effective communication with its customers customer-oriented service model. stock. We have secured an excellent service
is vital to an organisation that understandably A total of 2,000 tonnes of inventory was agreement with FedEx Express that means
prides itself on its service commitment. A moved through the night over a two week period orders received before 08:30am GMT are
network of European sales representatives – while maintaining a full customer service each despatched the same day and delivered to any
calls on customers personally and is supported day. “The whole team did an outstanding job destination in the United States before 10:30am
by a multilingual sales office team at Lancaster under the pressure, keeping track of where items two days later. For Canadian destinations it
– comprising German, French, Spanish, Italian of stock were at any time and picking it accurately takes just 90 minutes longer. Our customers will
and Polish speakers. to meet our delivery schedules to customers.” By also benefit from the excellent freight rates we
With success comes inevitable growing pains the first week of November Lancaster was fully have been able to negotiate.”
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